If I had a nickel for every time young people's legitimate concerns about (rising) economic inequality, lowered spending power and erosion of workplace rights were dismissed by a variant of "this is how the world works" I'd be able to afford the moon base and giant laser I would need to solve the problem permanently.
I personally believe that the game is rigged to the advantage of the ultra rich and that should be fixed to some extent. But I also accept that I can still have tremendous success with actually not that much effort if I play the game too. It has never been easier to be educated on how the financial system works and how to use it to your advantage.
While it's admirable to try and fix things and make things more equitable (and we should try to do something about the ultra wealthy pulling away from the rest of us at an alarming pace) focusing too much on how the game is rigged against you is a self fulfilling thing. If you think you can't win, you won't (generic you, not you specifically).
Why? Why is that admirable? The real solution here is to realize that it's not a zero sum game, and Jeff Bezos making more money in 10 minutes than you'll make in a lifetime doesn't take ONE DIME out of your pocket. You maximize YOU. YOU'RE the captain of your financial ship, not the billionaires or the government.
The "income equality" argument is really just feeding envy and jealousy, and promoting that feeling of insecurity I've been preaching about for years now. It's another way for the propagandists to create more in-groups and out-groups. It's the main beef I have with Bernie Sanders and his ilk; I like Bernie as a man, but he's a politician; he's not interested in REALLY helping people. If he was, he'd be spending his time teaching everyone to be Jeff Bezos, more or less. But he's not, because that takes work, it's not immediate enough for our society today, and it doesn't generate votes. It's more fun to be the victim.
I am not a Progressive but I do think Bernie is very motivated by strong desire to shrink the enormous wealth gap in the US. I think he is genuinely offended and disgusted by it - rightly or wrongly. I never voted for the guy because I don't think he would be able to govern effectively, but he has been remarkably consistent on this topic for decades, relatively speaking.
The reality is that not everyone can be Jeff Bezos. It's only a ultra thin slice of the population who will start a business that eventually becomes worth nearly a trillion dollars.
edit - i did not mean to bold what got bolded
Look, I like Bernie as a person (as much as you can a public figure you've never met) but I have, in the past, called him an "economic fifth grader". Harsh, I know, and I don't stand by that for other reasons, but that he's disgusted by it doesn't make it "bad" or legislatively actionable.
No, NOT everyone can be Jeff Bezos. And that's okay. We don't want or need everyone to be Jeff Bezos. it's the unfortunate reality of a social construct; everyone is equal in terms of their... how shall we say it, "place"? I'm trying not to use the word "rights" here. But not everyone is equal in terms of their output or their outcome. We all have our role in society. Van Halen couldn't be if there were four Eddie Van Halen's, or four David Lee Roth's. Michael Anthony was crucial specifically because he WASN'T Eddie V.
You can't replace an Eddie Van Halen. You can approximate, but there's a point at which the uniqueness is defining. As good as I am at what I do - and I am - I came to the understanding long ago that I can be replaced in a fortnight. Not everyone can do what I do, but I'm far from the only one that can do what I do. And I'm paid accordingly. Like it or not, there's not a company on the planet like Amazon; there never was, either. Jeff Bezos was not waiting around for "see him, be him" nonsense. He is literally going where no man has gone before, in ways similar, but IMO beyond, what Gates and Jobs did back in the '80s. Why that should arbitrarily mean his income should be capped at some multiple of the people loading boxes onto the trucks makes no sense in any context.